Skip to main content
. 2023 Mar 24;13(3):e067944. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067944

Table 1.

Psychosis Immune Mechanism Stratified Medicine trial inclusion and exclusion criteria

Group Inclusion criteria Exclusion criteria
All participants
  • Provide informed consent.

  • Understand written and spoken English.

  • Able and willing to consent to blood sampling.

  • Willing to abstain from strenuous exercise for 72 hours prior to assessment.

  • Pregnancy (confirmed by urine pregnancy test) or breast feeding.

  • Body mass index>35.

  • Current or lifetime diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, autism or other neurodevelopmental disorder, major traumatic brain injury.

  • Currently active diagnosed eating disorder likely to compromise ability to take part.

  • History of alcohol or substance use disorder (abuse/dependence) within 6 months prior to eligibility assessment (nicotine and caffeine dependence are not exclusionary).

  • Current use of medication likely to compromise interpretation of immunological data.

  • Known active current or history of recurrent bacterial, viral, fungal, mycobacterial or other opportunistic infections.

  • Current infection with VZV, TB, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or HIV confirmed by blood test. X-ray of the chest will also be performed to assess for TB.

  • Any major episode of infection requiring hospitalisation or treatment with intravenous antibiotics within 4 weeks of eligibility assessment.

  • Unstable cardiac, pulmonary, renal, hepatic, endocrine, haematologic or active infectious disease, including current or prior malignancy.

  • Diverticulitis, inflammatory bowel disease or uncontrolled gastric/duodenal ulcer.

  • Concomitant autoimmune or autoinflammatory rheumatological disease.

  • Concomitant treatment with any biologic drugs.

  • Current and active ischaemic heart disease.

  • Uncontrolled hypertension defined as systolic blood pressure>170 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure>110 mm Hg.

  • History of severe allergic or anaphylactic reactions to human, humanised or murine monoclonal antibodies.

  • No history of chicken pox infection or no history of varicella zoster immunity.

Additional criteria for neuroimaging (optional)
  • Able and willing to consent to MRI scanning.

  • Contraindications to MRI.

Additional criterion for healthy controls
  • No current or lifetime psychiatric diagnosis.

Additional criteria for all individuals with psychosis
  • Meet ICD-10 criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia and related psychoses (code F20, F22, F25, F28, F29) at the time of eligibility assessment, as determined by the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview.

  • Be within 3 years of first diagnosis of psychotic disorder.

  • On stable treatment regime with no recent (within 2 weeks) initiation, cessation or change in class of antipsychotic medication.

  • No indication or other reason for preclusion into research (eg, significant risk of suicidal behaviour or risk to others) as determined by their clinical team.

  • Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale item score≥3 on P1 (delusions), P2 (conceptual disorganisation), P3 (hallucinatory behaviour) or P6 (suspiciousness/persecution).

Additional criteria for intervention group
  • Serum IL-6 level≥0.7 pg/mL at eligibility and baseline assessment.

  • Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale anticipatory pleasure score≤41 (based on item numbers 1, 3, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 8) and consummatory pleasure score≤36 (based on item numbers 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 13).

  • Evidence of COVID-19 immunity required prior to infusion, confirmed before randomisation using evidence of vaccination and antibody titre test.

Additional criterion for patients with psychosis without inflammation
  • Serum IL-6 level<0.7 pg/mL at eligibility and baseline assessment.

ICD-10, International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision; IL-6, interleukin 6; TB, tuberculosis; VZV, varicella zoster virus.